Well, it's been nearly 24 hours since Ned the Fighting Koi and I busted outta rehab.  We spent last night on the floor in a snark-house on the east side.  I couldn't sleep a wink all night because I was so worried that something would happen to Ned if I fell asleep.  I curled protectively around his bowl and dozed fitfully, but any time any of the other snarkheads so much as moved or snickered, I was wide awake again, peering anxiously into the water to make sure he was okay.

As soon as it got light, we hit the street again.  I managed to panhandle enough money to buy Ned some fish-flakes.  There's no reason for him to go hungry.  He didn't ask to live like this.

We hid out under a bridge through the hottest part of the day, then as the afternoon wore on and the shadows got long, I started to feel the first serious withdrawal cravings.  I needed snark or I was going to get the shakes soon, then the runny nose, then the chills and panic attacks.  Heaving a heavy sigh, I tucked Ned's bowl into its now-familiar place in the crook of my arm, and off we went to the public library.

We stood in line for a computer for an hour and a half, growing increasingly jittery and uncomfortable.  Well, I was.  Ned just kept contentedly swimming around and around the castle at the bottom of his bowl.

Finally, I got to a terminal, checked my email, checked in here at The Lake, then wandered over to Technorati to see who all has been alerted to my being on the lam and what they're saying about it.  And that was when I discovered this particularly petulant little piece by Stephen Elliott.

Groan.  Here we go again.  Not content to have been handed his ass in his first round of blog skirmishing, young Mr. Elliott has taken it upon himself to fire back at us for correcting his misconceptions about Joe Lieberman's bad habit of hitting the stump with Republican candidates.

Okay, Stephen, I'm going to go pretty easy on you since you are (by your own admission) something of a greenhorn around these parts, and, well, I think you look kinda cute in your picture, there at HuffPo, so I'm not going to give you the full FDL smack-down.  I just want to straighten a couple things out. 

She also now accuses me of colluding with Lieberman's campaign manager Dan Gerstein, which is a ridiculous assertion, and something I would like to think is beneath Jane. I think it's sad to so quickly stoop to name calling and assumptions about each other's motives and doesn't help the progressive cause we share.

Okay, the exact phrase that was used was "doing Dan Gerstein's work for him".  That does not mean you were directly asked, coerced, or paid to say what you did by Dan Gerstein.  This is Doing Danny's Dirtywork in the same sense that your side (the Lieberman side) keeps insisting that Lamont supporters are doing Karl Rove's work for him by "dividing the Democratic Party in Connecticut", or that we're doing Osama Bin Laden's work for him by not supporting the Bush's Endless War on Terra'.  Is that clear?  Although your going all high and mighty and demanding that we apologize for telling the truth about Joe-das Iscariot's activities on the day in question does have that aggreived, histrionic edge that we've come to expect from Gerstein...

And as far as that debate goes, the debate over whether or not Joe Lieberman was "campaigning with Republicans"- Jane still hasn't acknowledged that Democrat Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is endorsing Ned Lamont, was also there. Does that lead to the headline Democrat Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to Campaign with Republicans?

Out here in Blogistan, we haven't heard anything from Blumenthal or seen anything from his staff that indicates that he was there that morning, and there is nothing to that effect in any of the many articles regarding the event (which all confirm what we originally reported -- that Joe was at Groton with Rell and Simmons).  So without any kind of link to back you up the assertion here is, so far, carrying about as much weight as Atlas Pam's press credentials.

Mr. Elliott, you complain that you were treated uncivilly by us bad ol' liberal bloggers.  Well, when you come out with a headline like, "THE BLOGS WERE WRONG ABOUT JOE LIEBERMAN", smear us, MyDD, and Kos in the process and call us all liars?  And then offer nothing in the way of evidence for your claims?  Well, that tends to tick us bloggers off.  And out here?  We play rough.  You're lucky nobody has photoshopped you into a French maid's outfit, buddy.

But regardless, you're completely dissed on this issue, since today it came out that Jack Kemp is Joe's newest, bestest buddy and the two of them WILL BE CAMPAIGNING TOGETHER.

Associated Press

Published August 29 2006

 NEW LONDON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman, running for re-election as an independent after losing the Democratic primary and being abandoned by top-ranking Democrats earlier this month, will campaign with former Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, Lieberman said Tuesday.

Normally, only the Rightards say this, but BWAH-HA-HAAAAAAAAA!!!11!!!

So, Mr. Elliott, repeat after me.

Joe.

Lieberman.

Campaigns.

With.

Republicans.

Okay?  Are we clear?

There.  Whew!  I feel better.  Get the snark pumping through me again and I feel like a hundred bucks! 

Mmmmmm.  

Okay, now I just need to figure out where Ned and I are going to spend the night.  Any of you guys out there have, well, a garage or something big enough for me to sleep in tonight? 

UPDATE: Our own *ilson46201 has been kind enough to provide multiple links to sources showing that Blumenthal was indeed in attendace on the morning in question here.   I stand corrected.  The management regrets the error.